North Royalton schools turn to volunteers to help shape district's future

NORTH ROYALTON — More than 115 area residents including two mayors and a variety of city, business and school officials assisted in bringing the Shape Our Schools’ Future Committee report to light.

The committee recently recommended to the North Royalton Board of Education that a $54.3 million bond levy should be issued before the voters to make repairs and add to several school buildings including North Royalton High and Middle schools, and Albion Valley Vista and Royal View elementary schools.

John Ranucci, who serves as the chairman of the committee, said he has been involved with trying to improve the schools’ facilities for the past six to seven years.

“I have been a 30 year resident of North Royalton and when I started getting involved I had three children in the city’s school system,” Ranucci said. “I saw that something needed to be done. When I took a closer look, I saw a lot of deficiencies.”

Ranucci said the North Royalton City Schools Shape our Schools Committee has been meeting for more than a year examining all of the school facilities. The committee’s report includes its findings and vision for the future of the schools in the community.

The committee first met in January 2011 and began recruiting additional members to help develop an action plan. By April 2011, the committee began touring the school facilities and later that summer reviewed all the data from the tours as well as other facility committee meetings.

By November, the committee developed a plan that was finalized with actual numbers by January of this year. The plan was presented to board of education in February.

Officials in the community who helped in shaping the committee’s reported included North Royalton Mayor Bob Stefanik, Broadview Heights Mayor Sam Alai and North Royalton Schools Superintendent Ed Vittardi. Also involved with the report were North Royalton school board members Dan Langshaw, Anne Reinkober and Heidi Dolezal.

Follow Us

cleveland.com is powered by Plain Dealer Publishing Co. and Northeast Ohio Media Group. All rights reserved (About Us).The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Northeast Ohio Media Group LLC.